Chimney Wasps

One afternoon while the painter was here, I came home with a load of groceries. After I set them down on the kitchen counter, I became aware of a humming and buzzing sound. I could see a few wasps buzzing around on the ceiling. The painter had been staining the front door and I assumed a few had come in while the door was wide open.

I made a few more trips to the car and brought all groceries inside. More buzzing sounds. I'm pretty sure that sound is one of the more unnerving sounds. Even though they probably wouldn't bother me, I could not rest with that sound in the house. The last thing I wanted to do was chase down a couple of wasps in the house after I'd been walking the aisles of Walmart. 

But the more I stood and looked around, the more wasps I began to see. More bouncing on the ceiling. A few on the blinds. A few on the table. Then I noticed a swarm on the kitchen light fitting. And even more between the kitchen blinds and the windows.

What do you do with so many inside the house? I know what you do outside. Spray with wasp spray and run. But I wasn't sure if you were supposed to spray wasp spray inside the house, or if it was even safe.

There were too many to swat with a fly swatter, so I took a chance and used the wasp spray. It was surprisingly effective and didn't leave much mess, except streaks down the window panes. I figured I could clean the windows later.

I searched the house for strays and used the fly swatter for the rest. I ended up breaking the fly swatter from all the swatting. When I finally felt confident I had killed all of them, I swept them up into a nice pile to show everyone when they got home.

Throughout the afternoon, more wasps appeared and I finally decided they were coming in from the chimney. After a quick internet search, I decided the best thing to do was spray wasp spray up the chimney and close the flue.

For the next few days we had a few stragglers, but nothing like the first day. I think having the front door open most of the day created some sort of down draft which drew the wasps down rather than up the chimney.